Dal filmmakers take to the big screen

Deep End showing in Atlantic Film Festival

Correction: A portion of this article were incorrectly portrayed as original content when it was in fact copied directly from the Atlantic Filmmaker’s Cooperative website. The Gazette regrets this serious error and has accredited the article properly below. The article was not run in our print edition. 

Bretten Hannam and Robert Evong are two Dalhousie students who, a year ago, had an idea for a film. On September 17th they will see it realized on the big screen during the Atlantic Film Festival.

Hannam chose a five-minute story about a 13-year-old boy who is forced to grow up too fast. “It’s about standing up for someone you care about,” he says.

Deep End is a film about a boy called Dane who discovers his older brother is gay during the course of one day at a community pool. He spends the day struggling to understand the implications of his brother’s coming out, and dealing with local reactions.

According to the website of the Atlantic Filmmaker’s Cooperative, “Film 5 is an Atlantic Canada film workshop that provides creative teams with professional development, project development, and relationship building opportunities.

“Up to eight teams receive training and mentorship through the Project Development Phase. Four of those teams are selected to move to production, receiving $7,500 in cash and over $25,000 in services to complete a five-minute film.”

Hannam and Evong are one of those lucky four teams. They were able to get their film fully cast, produced and on September 17, during the Atlantic Film Festival, their hard work will be shown to hundreds of people.

The pair admits that it is going to be a daunting moment. “It’s going to be scary, nerve wracking, exciting, all mixed in with a huge amount of pride and relief,” Hannam says.

For a full schedule of the Atlantic Film Festival see here.